Sermon: A Different Economy

Text: Luke 11:1-13
Lectionary: Year C, Proper 12

Five years ago Elise and I took a vacation in Italy, spending about a month there. The first third of the trip was a group tour around the country on a bus. It was at the very end of that trip, the very last evening, as the group’s luggage was being unloaded from the bus, that I discovered that my luggage went missing and probably was stolen.

It was a rather unexpected, nasty surprise. But it could have been worse. I had fortunately carried all important documents and credit cards and such on my person. If the thief was looking for valuables in the luggage, they would have been sorely disappointed, save for a bit of US currency that I had in there since I didn’t need any while in Italy. Probably the most valuable thing was the luggage itself.

I was amazingly Zen about the whole affair. Retrospection wouldn’t change things, and the immediate future was somewhat dictated by having to file police reports and get a couple of changes of clothing. Taking the perspective that this led to some new experiences that I wouldn’t have otherwise had, to invoke curiosity about them, might have been factors that helped get through it without getting too stressed or annoyed.

It was decidedly inconvenient, but the sudden cutting loose from stuff that I had been carrying, albeit not my choice, was surprisingly freeing. Looking back on it now, it seems that I was suddenly forced to be more in-the-moment, to have to work through the new circumstances of the here-and-now.

Mindfulness: Being Present

Mindfulness has become quite the trend and buzz in wellness circles over the past couple of decades. It is most frequently associated with the practice of meditation, but the two are not the same. Meditation, particularly the types focusing on breathing and being aware of one’s own body, is a practice that is used to lead toward mindfulness. But mindfulness is the result of meditation or any other practice that leads to a state where one’s focus is on the present, rather than on retrospection (past oriented) or prospection (future planning).

Social scientists and psychologists have found that people who are happy tend to be focused on the present; i.e., they are mindful. They certainly do look back in history for lessons and make plans for the future, but they have learned to live in the present.[1]

On the other hand, those who ruminate in retrospection or are overly fixated on prospection tend to be less happy. Retrospection might be the result of regrets about the past or the preference for nostalgia, where the mind diminishes or erases the bad parts memories. Prospection might be the preference of an idealized future in which everything goes according to plan. In both cases, there seems to be significant felt dissatisfaction with the present.

Lord's Prayer and Mindfulness

I think the Lord’s Prayer, at least in part, is telling us to be present and to be mindful.

The version found in Luke is quite terse and direct, when compared to the version we most often recite from Matthew. Here it is again to refresh our memories.

^2b “Father, may your name be revered as holy.
May your kingdom come.
³ Give us each day our daily bread.
⁴ And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.” (Luke 11:2b-4 NRSVue)

The prayer begins and ends with what could be seen as future oriented: a desire to see the fulfillment of God’s kingdom on earth and a petition to be spared the time of trial.

But the central portion of the prayer is about the present, one day at a time. This is most clearly seen in the petition for provision of today’s needs, “Give us each day our daily bread.”

Debt Erasure and Not Keeping Records

But notice that the clause about forgiving is stated in the present tense: “And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.” Notice too, how Luke uses sins and debts interchangeably.

I think that there is an important principle here that we often overlook or ignore. Followers of Jesus don’t keep a ledger of debts, either formally or informally.

Keeping a record of debts means always having reminders about something owed to you from the past, and always looking toward a future time when the debt will be repaid in some manner. Relationships become transactional. Our interactions become accounting and mathematical problems. Will what I say or do be a credit or a debit on this relational ledger? Will we be owing someone, or will this be a repayment on some debt owed? Are they doing me a favor because of some past debt, or will they now expect repayment from me in the future? Even if we don’t explicitly think in these terms, I think that there is a part of us that wants to keep this kind of ledger.

Our social and economic structures, the ones we are immersed in from birth, perpetuate and reinforce this kind of thought process. These systems are the very air we breathe. We don’t even think about it. The exchange of goods for other goods and services, meritocracy, lending and borrowing, contracts, expectations of full repayment – these are all not just economic concepts, but they color how we approach community and relationships. Even participation in church can become transactional: am I getting out of church what I am putting into it?

Through the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us a different economy. One that can free us from being trapped by the past and from limits debt often places onto future possibilities. An economy that is achieved by eliminating ledgers altogether; by forgiving everyone of all debts, where this is done by all for one another.

Could such an economy actually work? Wouldn’t there be some who just take and take without ever giving back, taking advantage of those who give? Perhaps we can’t imagine anything like this working because we are unable to imagine beyond our culture and societal norms. Perhaps we are so steeped in the economy of scarcity and power that we can’t imagine people not taking advantage of one another to acquire more and amass power over others.

Parable of the Friends at Midnight

Immediately after the Lord’s Prayer, Luke records a parable told by Jesus. It does not come through in most English translations, but the first large portion of the parable should be read as a question posed by Jesus.

⁵ And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has [Can you imagine] a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, ⁶ for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ ⁷ And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ ⁸

This entire section should be preface as, “Can you imagine a friend doing this with your request?” The expected response from Jesus’ hearers would have been an emphatic, “No, we cannot.”[2]

I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything out of friendship, at least because of his persistence [shamelessness] he will get up and give him whatever he needs. (Luke 11:5-8 NRSVue)

Translation and Interpretation Alternatives

Here we get into one of the very confusing translation and interpretive problems in the New Testament. The word, here, translated as persistence leads to the interpretation that it is because of the persistence of the friend in need that the friend with the means finally acquiesces to the demands. And the frequent application is that we should be just as persistent in prayer to God. But that opens up a whole new can of worms in regard to answers to prayer, which we do not have the time to get into right now.

A better translation is shamelessness. But once more, this is applied to the one asking for bread, leading to the interpretation that one should or must be bold in asking God in prayer.

But other interpreters apply the shamelessness to the friend behind the locked door, the one with means. In this interpretation, the friend finally gives in because to refuse the request would be to bring shame and dishonor not only to himself, but to the entire community, for refusing to be hospitable to the guest who has arrived from outside the community.

A problem with this interpretation is the question about God and shame and honor. Those who object to this interpretation object on the grounds that God isn’t subject to shame and honor, and therefore, this interpretation is unsound. But when we see this and the latter part of today’s reading (which we will not specifically discuss here) as parables of “how much more is God willing” then the interpretation fits. If humans can be motivated by a sense of shame avoidance to do the right thing, how much more is God, who is completely righteous and good, willing to respond to requests from God’s people?

But there is yet another way to look at the parable. In most interpretations we assume that we are the friend asking for bread. But what if we turn it around such that we are the one behind the locked door, with the bread, being asked to get out of bed and get bread for the person outside? We are being asked because we happen to have the resources to fulfill the community’s need at this moment. How will we respond?[3]

Distribution of God's Gifts

It might seem to you like I’m wandering over a lot of territory today that doesn’t seem to connect. I hope that in these last few minutes I can bring it mostly together. First let’s review the final verse from today’s reading.

¹³ If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13 NRSVue)

The specific mention of the gift of the Holy Spirit to those who ask reminds me of the gifts of the Spirit that are found in several of the Epistles. Here is one such list and description from 1 Corinthians:

⁴ Now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, ⁵ and there are varieties of services but the same Lord, ⁶ and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. ⁷ To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. ⁸ To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, ⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ¹⁰ to another the working of powerful deeds, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹ All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. (1 Corinthians 12:4-11 NRSVue)

What I notice is that the gifts are distributed among the community for the common good. No one person has all the gifts, and the Spirit determines how the gifts are allocated.

Can We Imagine Better?

What if the answering of prayers to God is most frequently, by God, intended to be answered through God’s community on earth? What if the community of believers, globally, has been given all the resources and gifts necessary to respond to nearly every request that has and will be petitioned through prayer? What if all believers fully believed and trusted in the abundance of God’s provisions? What if we fully trusted that God provides sufficient resources to offer one another with our daily bread? What if we trusted that on some days we would be the ones blessed with abundance, but on other days we would be the ones asking another, but together we could meet one another needs for the day? What if we didn’t keep tallies of who was giving more and who was asking more, but rather, understood that all resources come from God to be used for the common good?

Honestly, I don’t know if this vision is realistic. In all reality, I seriously doubt it could work at all. But maybe just being able to imagine something different is a start.

I think there are briefs moments when each of us has experienced such grace from the community around us. Many of us have probably had opportunities to extend such grace. But then we quickly get back to the ways in which the world actually works.

Letting go of the baggage of living in this world, according to the ways of this world, is a difficult thing. Jesus says to us,

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 NRSVue)

Jesus won’t take away our baggage without our consent. But he pleads with us to allow him to take them, because he knows it will be so freeing for us.

This sermon does not have answers, only questions. But what I do hope is that it will ignite some small part of our spiritual imaginations to ponder the kind of community that Jesus began to build, and what it will take to continue that work, to create a community that operates from a sense of abundance and cooperation, rather than scarcity and competition.[4] 

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[1] How to Know That You Know Nothing - The Atlantic (https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2021/10/mindfulness-curiosity-arthurbrooks-ellenlanger-howto-2021/620283/). Also the entire “How to Build a Happy Life” podcast series, from which this episode is taken, explorers what happiness is and how to build a life that can experience more of it.

[2] Bailey, Kenneth E. Poet & Peasant, Chapter 6, “Exegesis of Luke 11:5-13”.

[3] Feasting on the Gospels – Luke, Volume 1. Commentary on Luke 11:1-13, Pastoral Perspective.

[4] Although I do not specifically reference the New Testament reading for this week, Colossians 2:6-15, in this sermon, I think there are thematic touchpoints. 1) An ongoing, daily, present walk with Christ (v.6-7). 2) The exhortation to not conform to the "elemntal principles of the world" (v.8). 3) God forgiving "all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us" (vv.13-14). 

Sermon: Wonder, Mystery, Love

By EHT Collaboration& - Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the heart of our galaxy (Image link), CC BY 4.0, Link

Lectionary: Trinity Sunday, Year C
Text: Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; John 16:12-15

God of Wonders

A month ago, the first-ever image was assembled of the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy so that we could see Sagittarius A*, as the black hole is called.

An article about this in The Atlantic starts out,

We live in the inner rim of one of the Milky Way’s spiral arms, a shimmery curve against inky darkness. Travel for thousands of light-years in one direction, past countless stars, countless planets, and countless moons, and you’d reach the outer edge of the Milky Way, where the last bits of our galaxy give way to the sprawling stillness of the intergalactic medium. Travel about the same distance in the other direction, past still more stars and planets and moons, through glittering clouds of dust, and you’ll end up in the heart of the galaxy, at one of the most mysterious landmarks in the universe…

Behold Sagittarius A* (pronounced “A-star”), a celestial object that has the mass of 4 million suns but could fit comfortably within the orbit of Mercury, the closest planet to the sun…

And still, we are not truly seeing Sagittarius A*, not really. Astronomers can’t take a real picture—in the way us non-astronomers would consider it—because black holes are, by definition, invisible. So the photo released today doesn’t show the black hole itself. Astronomers have captured Sagittarius A* in silhouette. The image reveals the shadow that the immensely dense black hole casts against the glowing, super-hot gas swirling around it.[1]

Black holes are so massive, their gravitational forces so strong, that it collapses space and time and not even light can escape from it. We can peer right to its edge, the event horizon, but cannot see into it. What actually happens inside a black hole is theorized, but we cannot see it.

Still staying within cosmology, but traversing the timeline, the Big Bang is the most widely accepted theory to explain the beginning of our universe. At the beginning of this physical universe, all space, time, energy, and matter was a single point which rapidly expanded and formed what we can observe and experience today. Yet science can only observe and explain moments after the big bang. Before that, we don’t know exactly how things were.

Our reading from Proverbs 8 tells us that God and Wisdom, frequently associated with and sometimes equated with the Holy Spirit, were present before any of what we can observe and explain existed. The immense power that formed the material universe, the immense power at the center of our galaxy – they are just a fraction of the power that is in God’s hands. These are huge mysteries to us in the fields of cosmology and astrophysics, but God knows what came before the big bang and what happens beyond the event horizon of a black hole.

There was yet another article in The Atlantic a week ago about what oceanographers and marine biologists are learning about deep-diving ocean predators. These marine mammals and fish, which we often see at and near the ocean surface, dive to 1000, 2000, and even 3000 meters deep. Science and technology are now allowing us to discover these fascinating facts and slowly reveal the mysteries of the deep. Some of these mysteries that have been revealed is the richness of nutrients that are available in very deep layers of the ocean; how many preyed-upon creatures use swift, deep dives to escape predators; and how certain deep-ocean biological structures that are found in these species that confounded scientists in the past are now revealed to be used for deep-diving.[2]

God and the Holy Spirit works through the discipline of the sciences to allow humankind to discover new truths about the physical world we inhabit. Yet some things may forever remain mysteries.

God of Mystery

When we think about God and the Trinity, it is God’s power, majesty, and mystery that are often what comes to mind first. We think about hymns like Come, Thou Almighty King and Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty. And clearly, God’s power and majesty are demonstrated in the vast expanse and mysteries of Creation in the past, but also ongoing in the present time.

This is mostly how ancient peoples thought about deities – powerful, yet distant. Even for the Israelites, with God among them in the wilderness sanctuary, and later the Temple, God was not a being that just anyone could approach and have a relationship. There were priests and Levites, and sometimes prophets, who mediated encounters between the people and God.

But with the arrival of Jesus into humanity, as a human being, the entire conception of God was turned on its head. No longer was God simply “out there” or contained through mediating layers. No, God became Immanuel: God with us. God literally walked among humanity in Jesus. But after his physical departure, Jesus promised that the Spirit would be with us. The very same Spirit that was present at the beginning, sharing God’s essence, glory, and power; the Spirit that helped form all of Creation.

Today’s gospel text reads that the Spirit “will guide [us] into all truth.” When we hear “truth” we often equate it with “facts.” But we must be careful to determine what Jesus meant by “truth” here. We know very well that facts can be manipulated to communicate something that is the very opposite of what is true. And we also know that what is not factual, often found as fictional stories, can communicate truth more effectively than listing dry facts.

Earlier in the farewell discourse, from which today’s reading is taken, Jesus declared that he is the truth. In the context of this discourse then, what Jesus states to his disciples is that the Spirit will guide them into all that Jesus was and is and will be. Here is the text once more:

¹² “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³ When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify me because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵ All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (John 16:12-15 NRSV)

God of Love

In this text there are some things that Jesus couldn’t directly communicate to his disciples. At some point in the future, additional truths were to be communicated through the Spirit to them. What the Spirit communicates is the truth of Jesus. And the truth of Jesus comes from the Father. One of the primary truths about the Trinity is found here: God’s truth is found primarily in relationships. Jared Byas, a theology faculty member at Eastern University, says,

“If we look at all of the instances of truth in the Bible, we will come away realizing that it’s a relational term, it’s about being honest, it’s about having integrity.”[3]

There are several examples in the apostolic church of the Spirit revealing new relational truths to the church. The first might be the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch.[4] Here the Spirit instructs Philip to go and explain the gospel of Jesus to an Ethiopian and a eunuch, both categories which likely would have been thought of as not fully acceptable God. But the Spirit broadens who can enter God’s family. The eunuch believes, or perhaps more accurately stated, the eunuch decides that God is trustworthy and is baptized into a relationship with God and the community of fellow people that have also come to trust in God’s trustworthiness.

The next example is Peter and the Roman centurion Cornelius.[5] Here Peter receives a vision about unclean foods and is commanded to eat. He is confused until Cornelius comes knocking on the door, and suddenly Peter understands. He goes to Cornelius’ house, ignores Jewish traditions, and enters into relationship with a gentile in his house, the household believes, and they are all baptized into God’s family.

A third example is found in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, where he writes:

²⁶ for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. ²⁷ As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸ There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:26-29 NRSV)

The idea that all members of God’s family are on equal ground with one another is a radically different relational model. That everyone has equal access to God is revolutionary. That there are no hierarchies of race, nationality, socioeconomics, or gender was unheard of in ancient Greco-Roman society. And it is still, unfortunately, rare to see this fully practiced.

The truth of God, embodied in Jesus’ life and death, and given to the Spirit to communicate and remind believers across the centuries, is God’s mutual, egalitarian love. Just as God the Father, Jesus, and the Spirit practices it within the Trinity, Jesus demonstrated what it looks like with his disciples and in his interactions with the people he came across daily. The Spirit has been revealing how this kind of love is to be more fully practiced throughout the time following Jesus’ ascension through this present time.

Even though Paul’s declaration to the Galatians was quite egalitarian, in practice slavery, racism, gender inequality, and caste systems continued to keep their hold. Only slowly have their grips loosened on societies, and even today we continue to battle forces that would reverse the progress that love has made.

Experiencing Trinitarian Love

God has made God’s self known in the power, majesty, beauty, wonder, and mysteries of Creation. God’s love extends to all creation, but as far as we know right now, there is only a tiny part of this creation that can respond back to God with love.

In the First Epistle according to John, we read,

¹⁹ We love because he first loved us. ²⁰ Those who say, “I love God,” and hate a brother or sister are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. ²¹ The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. (1 John 4:19-21 NRSV)

Our response to God’s love should be to love one another. To love one another is to love as Jesus loved us. Jesus loved people through words of encouragement, through healing acts, through providing for needs, and sometimes through rebuke. But in every case Jesus did what was most needed to help each person and their communities become the best versions of themselves, to reach the full potentials of humanity and community that God created them to be.

I think that might be a good way of understanding how to love as Jesus loved. Love is not the same as being nice to someone. Love is about building and strengthening individual and societal relationships. Love is sometimes about repairing and restoring damaged and broken relationships. Love may have to say difficult things at times, but it is never harsh. Love might mean we have to engage with people we find difficult or don’t like, but it is always kind and hopes for the best.

The Trinity can’t be explained. But we do have the offer to experience it, if we choose, when we build and sustain a community that loves as God loves.

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[1] Behold, the Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy - The Atlantic (https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/05/sagittarius-a-black-hole-milky-way/629838/)

[2] What Are Ocean Predators Doing So Deep Underwater? - The Atlantic (https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/06/ocean-predators-deep-dive/661186/)

[3] Episode 209: Jared Byas - Making of the Modern Mindset, Part 4 - Pete Enns (https://peteenns.com/episode-209-jared-byas-making-of-the-modern-mindset-part-4/)

[4] Acts 8:26-40.

[5] Acts 10.

Sermon: Thoughts and Prayers

Lectionary: Year C, Easter 7

Texts: Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21; John 17:20-26

“The moral arc of the universe bends toward justice – but only if someone helps bend it.” [1] – Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas

This past week was the kind of week that causes even the most faithful Christian to pause and wonder, even if only in their minds, if God exists, and if God does, does God care about us?

The week opened with a report in which it was confirmed that the largest Christian denomination in the United States[2] has for decades dismissed and covered up child sexual abuse, sexual assault, and rape within not only the churches in its denomination, but among several of its past and present denominational leaders.[3] An article headline at The Atlantic read, “No Atheist Has Done This Much Damage to the Christian Faith.”[4] In a paragraph midway thorough the article, Peter Wehner, the columnist wrote,

“It’s nearly impossible to overstate how much damage these new revelations—these necessary and long-overdue revelations—are doing to the Christian witness. No atheist, no secularists or materialists, could inflict nearly as much damage to the Christian faith as these leaders within the Christian Church have done.”

This is yet another in a repeated pattern among too many churches and denominations. Institutions and their leaders seem to always prioritize their own survival and longevity over caring for the people. Those who dare accuse them are dismissed, shamed, denounced, and called liars, furthering the abuse that the victims have suffered. I’ve personally seen this in churches and church schools I’ve been a part of in my past.

Before the ink was dry on this and many other articles and commentaries that had been written on this topic, they were pushed off the pages by a massacre in Uvalde, Texas where 19 children and 2 teachers were killed by a gunman.

In its aftermath plenty of “thoughts and prayers” were offered to the victims, their families, and the community. Yet if the past is any indication of the present, many offering such “thoughts and prayers” will do nothing towards implementing measures that could reduce the occurrence of these horrific killings that seem to be so regularly occurring that only a few rise to national consciousness.

Here are just a few gun violence tragedies that took place in just the past four to five weeks:[5]

• May 24: Uvalde, Texas – 19 children and two teachers killed at an elementary school
• May 14: Buffalo – 10 people killed and 3 wounded in a supermarket
• May 15: Laguna Woods, California – 1 person killed and 4 critically wounded at Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church
• May 15: Houston – 2 killed and 3 critically wounded at an open-air flea market
• May 13: Milwaukee – 16 wounded in downtown Milwaukee
• April 27: Biloxi, Miss. – 4 killed at a motel and another killed during a connected carjacking

If this were truly a “Christian nation”, as some Christians (erroneously) claim, would we be seeing any of this? Do the value claims of so-called pro-life Christians extend to children in schools and churches? While emphasizing liberty and freedom, how come the emphasis seems mostly to be on that which is associated with power and violence, rather than securing liberty and freedom through safety and care of the young, the weak, the vulnerable, and the marginalized?

I am angry. But I also feel helpless. And even hopeless. The church and Christians have failed and continue to fail so many times, that during times like this week, I even question the value of the church and the faith on which it supposedly rests. I’ve never seen so many pastors and Christian leaders drop the f-bomb and other 4-letter words this week. We are exhausted. We are numb. It feels like all the visible powers are stacked against justice, goodness, care, compassion, and love.

Speaking of swear words and such profanity, it should be noted that their use is not inherently a violation of the third commandment (“don’t take God’s name in vain”), although during my childhood and youth I got the idea that it was. I supposed it was related to some swear phrases using “god” but somehow the third commandment was broadened to include any profanity.

But the third commandment and its violation does have relevance to the present issue. Both Jewish and Christian sources offer us examples of what violations of the third commandment look like.

In Judaism, reciting a blessing from God and then failing to follow through may be considered a transgression of the third commandment. The most common example given is offering a blessing over food but then not partaking of it.[6]

The Epistle of James includes several examples in chapter 2 where a person claims the faith of Christ yet their actions show that their use of the name of Christ is in vain:

2 My brothers and sisters, do not claim the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory while showing partiality. ² For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, ³ and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here in a good place, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit by my footstool,” ⁴ have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts…?  ⁶ But you have dishonored the poor person…

¹⁵ If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? (James 2:1-4, 6a, 15-16)

Jesus himself taught that there would be those who use his name in vain:

²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. ²² On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ ²³ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you who behave lawlessly.’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

To transgress the third commandment then, has little or nothing to do with profanity but about: 1) offering a prayer or petition to God without corresponding action that demonstrates that the person praying is doing their part to fulfill the prayer or petition; and 2) claiming to be a follower of Jesus while taking actions that are incongruent to his life and teachings.

“Thoughts and prayers” that are offered for victims of abuse and victims of violence – for the most part I take them to be well-intentioned. Some may be just platitudes, but I imagine most are sincere expressions. But without corresponding action to follow through, they become meaningless words at best, and at worst, hypocrisy and even sin.

Does this mean we shouldn’t pray for victims, their families, communities, and the nation? If prayer is offered as a performative act or to quiet guilty consciences, perhaps it would be better to not pray at all. But there is a purpose for prayer, and our gospel reading from John offers a way forward.

In Jesus’ prayer recorded in John chapter 17, he prays that God will glorify him just as he glorified God during his years of ministry among the people. Jesus then prays for his disciples to be unified and be one. Jesus has given his disciples God’s word and has sent them into the world. But the world hates the disciples just as the world hates Jesus, because of the word and truth that they now proclaim. The glory that God has given Jesus, Jesus gives to his disciples and all who come to faith because of the word of God proclaimed by the disciples. And it is this glory that is the foundation of unity.

We usually associate power and might with ‘glory’, and we conjure images of Christ as a conquering king to destroy evil and establish a new kingdom of righteousness. And in other writings found in the New Testament, that may sometimes be the case.

But not in the gospel of John. For the gospel writer, the glory of Jesus is the cross and his crucifixion. It is not the kind of might or power that the world expects. Jesus’ glory is intimately related to sacrificial love. And by extension, through Jesus’ prayer, the glory of Christians is not about how powerful and influential we can be in the world, but how much sacrificial love we can have for the world.

What did sacrificial love look like in Jesus’ life? Jesus respected women. He paid attention to children. He cared for grieving widows. He took notice of the poor. He did not ignore or dismiss people with disabilities and disease. He fully accepted those of differing nationalities and race. On the other hand, he was critical of those who showed favoritism and those who marginalized, oppressed, and abused groups that were considered “less.” He was not afraid to publicly shame those who thought they were honorable and defend and lift those who society saw was dishonorable.

By violating cultural expectations and norms, by challenging the status quo, Jesus’ actions threatened the gatekeepers of power. In their honor-based society, the very basis of their position and security was challenged by Jesus. Jesus dared to expose the rot in the system and of those who supported the status quo. For them to retain their honor, Jesus would have to go. If he would not go quietly away, he would have to forcibly be removed. And that led to Jesus’ crucifixion – a death so shameful, his entire movement would be destroyed – or so they thought.

Yet it was this dishonor and shame that was the ultimate demonstration of the extent and depth of God and Jesus’ love for all people and all creation. Jesus does what he must do to play his part in answering his own prayer. The readers of Jesus’ prayer in John 17 must look to Jesus’ example to see what it means to share in his glory and be one with one another. Jesus’ prayer is not calling on God to act and then simply waiting for something to happen. Jesus’ prayer is a call to action for himself and for all of his disciples from his very first ones to all that would follow in turn.

Prayer always includes a call to action. Even the Lord’s Prayer, recited weekly, is a call to action for those who pray it. How can we help hallow God’s name? How can we bring the kingdom to earth today? How can we carry out God’s will today? How can we provide for one another’s daily needs? For what do we need to ask forgiveness from someone? How can we remain strong in the face of temptation to succumb to evil?

Do our actions even matter anymore? Hopelessness and nihilism are common refrains during the last several days.[7] Evil and violence keep repeating, and nothing changes. Attempts to make any change are blocked at every turn, or so it seems. The last thing the gatekeepers of power want is change. They benefit from things the way there are. They do not want change.[8]

Yet we are told and know that Jesus will bring about a restoration of righteousness and justice. Our reading from Revelation is one of those texts.

¹² “See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. ¹³ I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”

¹⁴ Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. (Rev. 22:12-14)

The lection omitted verse 15, but it too, can be a light of hope.

¹⁵ Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. (Rev. 22:15)

One way of interpreting this is to see this as all in the future. We will simply have to wait patiently through the present sufferings until Jesus returns to restore everything. But I discussed in last Sunday’s sermon how the New Jerusalem and the new age was already being inaugurated and coming into the present. Today’s text is a continuation of that. Jesus is already coming and the new age is something that we have been tasked to help bring about.

The text calls Christians to action. We are to wash our robes. A commentary on this text observes,

“It is an odd directive. It points us away from sky gazing and orients us toward the everyday work of the faithful, in ways that can be interpreted both practically and metaphorically. Doing laundry is not glamorous or exciting. It can be mundane and tedious labor. Yet it is necessary…

The instructions for those who are waiting are to concentrate on the tasks at hand and to be about the work of cleansing a world made unclean.”[9]

When Jesus prayed for his disciples to share in his glory, he meant for them to do exactly the type of work that he had done. He cared for and loved those whom society ignored and oppressed. In doing so he exposed the rot and evil that was part of the system of power and culture. He exposed the hypocrisy of those who maintained the system and who benefited from it. His direct disciples continued his work, and every subsequent generation of disciples is also called upon to continue this work of exposing the rot of power-based structures and in its place seek to bring about a system based on mutual and self-sacrificing love. Power always separates and divides the haves from the have-nots. Love and sacrifice is the only path to unity, the oneness that Jesus prayed for his disciples to have.

We, as Jesus’ disciples in the 21^st century, have been given the same task. Yes, pray and think. But we must also act. We must continue to launder the dirt, the filth, the rot that continues in the world. We must have the courage to be hated for exposing systems and structures that harm and divide. We must fight against the inertia of maintaining the status quo.

We must actively work against violence and work for peace. We must actively confront abusers and empower victims and survivors. We must prioritize people over systems, unjust laws, and unjust applications of laws.[10] We must have the courage to be hated for our stand against injustice, abuse, and violence.

“Thoughts and prayers” are only worthwhile if they are transformed into action to change the world for the better. “Thoughts and prayers” must lead to “laundry day”.

It can be difficult so see the kingdom of God, the New Jerusalem, the glorified Church within and among us. I pray that we will be given the eyes of faith to see reality beyond this physical reality, to see that God is even now working with and through us. And may we be given hope that can overcome the hopelessness that can so easily suffocate us and keep us from action.

The message of Easter is that Christ has overcome death, the grave, and hopelessness. Jesus’ resurrection is the vindication that sacrifice and love will overcome evil and hate. But only if we ourselves are willing to die to the ethics of the world. We must be resurrected into the new life of love and sacrifice found in Christ. May our hope remain strong in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

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[1] The Altars Where We Worship (trippfuller.com) (https://trippfuller.com/2022/05/20/the-altars-where-we-worship/)

[2] Largest Christian Denominations in America: The Top 100 – Christianity FAQ (https://christianityfaq.com/largest-christian-denominations-america/)

[3] Guidepost Solutions’ Report of the Independent Investigation — Task Force Updates (sataskforce.net) (https://www.sataskforce.net/updates/guidepost-solutions-report-of-the-independent-investigation)

[4] The Southern Baptist Convention's Double Trauma - The Atlantic (https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/southern-baptist-convention-abuse-report/630173/)

[5] Mass Shootings in 2022: A Partial List - The New York Times (nytimes.com) (https://www.nytimes.com/article/mass-shootings-2022.html)

[6] Berachos, Guides - Berachos - Beracha Levatala - Din - Ask the Rabbi (dinonline.org) (https://dinonline.org/2011/03/01/berachos-beracha-levatala/)

[7] A Culture That Kills Its Children Has No Future - The Atlantic (https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/uvalde-texas-robb-elementary-school-culture-death/638435/)

[8] Straight White American Jesus, podcast episode: May 27, Weekly Roundup – Guns Over People (GOP). (https://straightwhiteamericanjesus.com/series/straight-white-american-jesus/). This episode has excellent observations and commentary by a couple of scholars who study the intersection of religion and culture on both the Uvalde massacre and the SBC abuse report.

[9] Feasting on the Word: Year C, Volume 2, Easter 7, Revelation, Pastoral Perspective (Kindle version).

[10] Here I am thinking about different kinds of ethical frameworks: deontological vs. teleological and virtue ethics.

Sermon: New Jerusalem, Here and Now

Lectionary Year C, Easter 6
Text: Revelation 21:(8-9), 10, 22-27; 22:1-5

On Interpretations and Methods of Interpretation

The last few pages of the Bible, the last couple chapters of Revelation, is in most Christian circles interpreted as what “heaven” or our eternal home away from this present world is going to be like. I don’t think that is an entirely wrong interpretation. It’s one that I grew up with and held to for at least three decades of my life. But I do think it is an interpretation that is based on modern ways of reading and interpreting literature; that is, we assume that something that appears at the end, particularly when all the words and language appear to point to a grand conclusion, therefore, must be chronologically and be spatially found at the very end of history.

We are living through times of increasing dysfunction and uncertainty, and there might be a certain amount of comfort that is found by looking to Revelation as an oracle about a future restoration of good order. When we see the violence and atrocities that are being committed by humans against humans, when our own safety and security are less certain than they were than just a few years ago, the words that tell us nothing evil will enter the restored city certainly are inviting. And looking to the words of Revelation for hope is one valid way of reading them.

But are we, the church, to merely suffer and wait through the present troubles until the words of Revelation find their fulfillment at some future time?

Intended Audience

The book of Revelation was not written to 19^th, 20^th, and 21^st century Christians. It was written to seven churches in ancient Asia Minor (in the region of present-day Turkey). They were words with immediate applicability to these churches. The writing took place in the context of a brutal empire, at best agnostic and at worst hostile to the Christian faith, and where the Jewish Temple had been destroyed by that same empire some two to three decades prior to the writing and the Jews had been scattered. Christianity was not yet completely separate from Judaism, although the rift was widening and in many places followers of Christ were no longer welcome in synagogues.

The words, the themes, and the imagery found in Revelation are steeped in the Hebrew scriptures: the Prophets certainly, but also the Torah and the Writings. It does violence to Revelation when it is interpreted apart from the allusions the writer makes back to his scripture. Unfortunately, many modern interpretations of Revelation do just that. They make the a priori assumption that it contains prophecies about the modern world and attempt to fit the words to modern-day events and persons.

One other critical piece of information necessary to interpret Revelation is the knowledge that the term “time of the end” or “age to come” is not pointing to a long distant future, but a new age that was inaugurated and ushered in through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Whenever we see a New Testament writer referring to end times, we need to understand that they assumed that they were already starting to live in it. That said, they also understood that the prior age was still ongoing alongside, and that the complete fulfillment of the promise of the age to come was yet to be in the future.

This rather long preamble I think is necessary because, in a nutshell, what we read from Revelation today, the original recipients would have understood to already be taking place among them.

The Identity of the New Jerusalem

The lectionary reading starts at chapter 21, verse 10, but if we just back up one verse we get a fuller context: “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, ‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’” Then continuing, “And in the spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.”

John is told he will be shown the bride and the wife of the Lamb. From other texts in the New Testament, it is understood that the bride metaphor represents the church. John expects to see the church, but instead he sees the New Jerusalem. Many biblical scholars today agree that the New Jerusalem is in fact a symbolic representation of the church. Several of the letters to the churches at the beginning of Revelation contain references to imagery found in the description of the New Jerusalem. For example,

Church at Ephesus	Those who conquer will be given permission to eat from the tree of life (2:7; c.f. 22:2)
Church at Sardis	Those who conquer will have their names in the book of life (3:5; c.f., 21:27)
Church at Philadelphia	Those who conquer will have the name of God and the name of the New Jerusalem written on them (3:12; c.f., 22:4)
Church at Laodicea	Those who conquer will join God on the throne and reign with God (3:21; c.f., 22:3, 5)

I think this reinforces the interpretation that the New Jerusalem is the church.

Characteristics of the New Jerusalem 

What then are some of the features and characteristics that describe the New Jerusalem?

No Temple

First, there is no temple. But then the text immediately goes to state that God and the Lamb is the temple. In any ancient civilization, the temple was the religious, civic, political, and social center. But in the New Jerusalem, there is no separate structure that the people “go” to. Rather, the very presence of God is the temple, and God’s presence permeates the entire city. When this thought is carried through to the interpretation that the New Jerusalem is the church, it means that there are no special locations or objects that are more sacred than others. Everything about the church is included in God’s sphere. In the wilderness sanctuary and the subsequent Israelite temple and the Second temple at Jesus’ time, there were designated levels of holiness and rings of scaredness as one went from the outside to the center, from the courtyard to the Most Holy place, which was seen as the throne room of God. These distinctions no longer exist in the church. Everyone is on equal footing, whatever gender, whatever nationality, whatever socio-economic status – all have direct access to God.

Always Day

The next characteristic of the New Jerusalem is that it is always day, never night, and no illumination is needed because God and the Lamb are its light. Now, this might be literally the case, but I do see it more in symbolic terms, especially when interpreting this city as the church. Both the sun and moon which give light during the day and night, are created objects. But when the Creator is there in person, all other illuminations fade away. What I think this suggests is that whereas in prior ages, prophets and priests mediated God for the people, and God was understood in terms of those messages, in the unfolding age, the church should be seeing and understanding God in the revelation of Jesus Christ, which not coincidentally is the first line of the book of Revelation.

The next characteristic of this city is that the “nations will walk by its light and the kings of the earth will bring glory to it,” and “people will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.” What this suggests to me is that the city, and therefore, the church, is broadly inclusive.

The Gates of the City

The text also tells us that the gates of the city will never be shut by day, and then adds an observation that there is no more night. Therefore, the city’s gates will never be shut, ever. Most traditional interpretations take this part of the description of the New Jerusalem and interpret in terms of security: that in this future city, there will be no more reason to fear. Again, I think that is a valid interpretation. But in this discussion, where we are interpreting the city as the church, I think there are additional possibilities for understanding the open gates.

The gates are open to let those who are coming from the outside into the city. And we just heard that the nations and their kings, walking by the light of the Lamb, are coming to the city. What this suggests is threefold. First, that the light from the church shines so brightly that the world around will want to come inside. Second, that the church is a welcoming place for everyone. The nations may have very different customs and practices, and those who enter are different in nationality and race. Yet they have one thing in common with those that are already inside: they are walking by the light of the Lamb. And the gates are open to them. They are welcome. The third point is that their entering in adds to the glory of the church. The light that shines in the city grows brighter as these different cultures, nations, practices, traditions, and experiences add to the church.

What is Not in the City

Going on… The next characteristic of the city is described in the negative, describing what is not present. “But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood… Nothing accursed will be found there any more.”

A Brief History of Sacred Spaces

To understand why this is so important, we must look back at the history of sacred spaces in the Bible. The first sacred space was the Garden of Eden, but it was invaded by a liar and caused the fall of humankind. The wilderness tabernacle was the next defined sacred space, but almost immediately after the final curtain was hung, Nadab and Abihu brought in unauthorized fire into the sanctuary and promptly died as a result. The word unauthorized can also be translated “strange” and has the meaning of “not holy”. Solomon’s Temple was profaned numerous times during its history. And the Second Temple was first defiled by Antiochus IV Epiphanes when he erected an altar to Zeus. The cleansing of the Temple by Jesus demonstrates that he believed that there were elements of uncleanness and defilement ongoing in the Temple during his time.

We tend to think of clean and unclean and defilement as limited to the religious sphere, but in ancient conception there was no clear distinction among religious, societal, and political spheres. Uncleanness was considered a pollution to all of life, if left unchecked. It could spread to the entire nation and cut them off from God. The purification rituals were provided to offer ways of correcting this potential danger.

Every sacred space recorded in Hebrew and Jewish history had been defiled. History does not bode well for sacred spaces. But the promise is that when the New Jerusalem manifests in its final glory, nothing will be allowed into it that causes defilement. No seed of impurity will be allowed in again. No contagious contamination will be allowed in to spread and destroy this final sacred space.

Uncleanness and Contamination in Revelation

What are some of these pollutants that is being referred to? Revelation 21:8 offers a possible clarification, “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

When we hear this, we might immediately think of these as individual sins committed by individuals. But we should recall the context of the writing of Revelation: that it was written to churches after the destruction of Jerusalem, to Christians who at times were persecuted by the Roman Empire. Revelation was written to encourage resistance against the Empire and to not give up.

Aside from isolated incidents of persecution against Christians, at that time there was no systematic persecution against them nor was there any specific law forbidding Christianity. Only when Christians were accused by someone for violating the customs and laws of the Empire did religious allegiance become an issue. And for much of this part of history, the test was merely to denounce Jesus Christ. It was easy to acquiesce to the Empire, remain quiet, and be fairly safe and secure. I read the above chapter 21:8 as a polemic against this kind of “getting by” kind of Christianity. Revelation is demanding that Christians take a bold stand against the Empire and what it stands for.

Contagious Contamination in the 21st Century Church

The uncleanness, the abomination, and the lies that Revelation refers to, I believe, is the kind of Christianity that is acceptable to the powers of the world, with the desire to be in league with these powers, and the timidity and cowardice and fear that keeps good Christians silent in the face of clear and obvious immorality and injustice. This kind of pollution is contagious, and I do believe it has contaminated a great swath of modern-day Christianity. The warnings and challenges found in Revelation are just as relevant today as it was during the Roman Empire.

The Source of Life

The kind of church that does not compromise with the powers of the world, which does not seek worldly power, and which is vocal in challenging the injustices of the powerful has something to offer: Life. Life is at the center of the New Jerusalem. Life is pictured as a river flowing from the center of the city and the Tree of Life straddling this river. The source of Life is the God and the Lamb, who are on their throne.

The only genuine power and authority is already in the church. The source of truth and life is among the church. Yet the church is frequently all too willing to pursue temporal power and privilege; to embrace tacitly, and sometimes explicitly, lies to further its temporal power; to claim support for life yet demonstrate that it is a claim in name only.

We are living in an age of renewed empire. Power is being consolidated into the hands of a few. We see the increasing sufferings of more and more populations, not just here in America but throughout the world. American Christianity is still very much a privileged segment of society. Many of us realize there is much wrong in our society, even here locally. Yet we would rather remain the silent majority. To be too loud might bring negative attention, perhaps even opposition.

What does living faithfully in Christ look like? Would we speak and behave differently if our trust was completely in the faithfulness of Christ to carry us through whatever we go through? What does it look like for the church, and this church, to be a bright shining light to the world? Do we experience the River of Life and the Tree of Life in our midst? Is it freely available to anyone who is willing to partake of it?

A small group of Christ’s followers on Easter morning changed the world. That same power and authority is still with us. We may be small, but we can be bold in proclaiming and living the life that is found in Christ. We can offer to this community a foretaste, today, of the New Jerusalem promised in its final glory.